The
Industrial Revolution in the latter half of the 18th century brought the much
influence to the world. The conspicuous examples that steel and glass by large-scale
production had caused it. However, those "new" architecture brought a
decline of beauty-standard we frequently see in large-scale production.
Moreover, for being piled up the reason that bad working conditions by the
industrialization, William Morris refused
the industrialism and the capitalism, he began the Arts & Crafts Movement pursued their ideal in the Middle
Ages, when he lived in the middle of the 19th century.
The
movement was carried on by the Art
Nouveau, a huge artistic movement centered around France and Belgium.
This movement, means "New Art" in French, distinguished by organic
and sensual curves, disagreed about inorganic matters. The marked example is Le Castel Beranger (H. Guimard).
Furthermore,
some movement in various places could be given definitions of new artistic
movements. The Expressionism in Germany
(the Secession in Wien) or the
Constructivism in Russia had begun because of the same ground refusing
the capitalism and the industrialism, though the backgrounds which have caused
them were different.
The Art Deco in the 1920's was pretty
different from those movements. The Art Deco, given geometric shapes put
straight and curve lines together to prominence, often adopted industrial
matters, metal and glass. That made it possible that the low-priced mass production
imitated their appearances. The Art Deco rely on mass production, spread over
the world. However the geometric shapes in the Art Deco wasn't born from the
pursuit of rationalism and the functionalism, charactaristics of
industrialization, but rather decoration which was equally regarded as most
important by the Art Nouveau.
The
biggest recipient was the industrial power, the United States of America. Chrysler Building（W. Van Alen, Newyork, 1928） is one of the masterpieces
of skyscrapers by the Art Deco.
